Gfinity is pleased to announce that it has agreed a deal with pioneering global broadcaster ELEVEN SPORTS to bring LIVE competitive video gaming action from the Elite Series to fans across all seven of its markets, including the USA.
Gfinity’s Elite Series commenced on 7th July and aims be one of the most innovative, engaging, entertaining and technologically advanced esports platform in the world, bringing together eight professional franchises competing across three games; Street Fighter V, Counterstrike:GO (CS:GO); and Rocket League.
The eight teams will face off in the Elite Series with each having drafted top amateur talent into their roster from the online Gfinity Challenger Series and will compete in a 7-week regular season featuring round robin league fixtures, followed by semi-finals and finals. All matches will be held at the Gfinity Esports Arena in London.
Gfinity has plans to extend the Challenger Series and Elite Series into new markets. The ambition to build a series of high quality events around the world chimes with ELEVEN SPORT’S strategy of building a local narrative into a global story. The presence of US and Belgian teams in the Elite Series is particularly pertinent to ELEVEN SPORTS, as they can use this to create captivating local content and make esports especially relevant to fans in those countries.
ELEVEN SPORTS will show LIVE coverage of the premium action, along with preview and review shows, behind the scenes footage, documentary and magazine content and industry interviews and features.
“Esports is growing rapidly worldwide and we are thrilled to agree this deal with Gfinity to bring a slice of the action to fans in every one of our markets,” said Danny Menken, Group Managing Director, ELEVEN SPORTS. “Gfinity aims to create a community where gamers can play, share, watch and learn via dynamic and engaging content. This makes it the perfect partner for ELEVEN SPORTS in line with our strategy to bring fans close the action, creating a go to destination where a community of dedicated and passionate millennial fans can access a diverse range of content that is tailor-made for them.”
Neville Upton, CEO, Gfinity plc says, “We are very excited to work with ELEVEN SPORTS as they are an excellent partner to deliver top quality broadcasting to almost 80 million pay TV households on top of their OTT subscribers in the key markets where esports matters the most. ELEVEN SPORTS distribute some of the biggest sporting events which makes them a natural fit for all the competitive video game action that the Elite Series has to offer in full HD, globally.”
Across all of its properties, Gfinity has organised 4.2 million gaming sessions which have achieved more than 100 million views to date across more than 20 countries with a total of 1.2 billion minutes watched, making it one of the world’s leading esports companies and the UK’s premier esports Tournament operator.
